Expressions of my obsessions with the fascinations of Natural Kansas by Ken Brunson

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Everhart's plesiosaur femur

One of the most fascinating things about the Kansas Outback is the ancient wildlife. I was recently fortunate to spend a day with Mike Everhart, author of Oceans of Kansas, and Adjunct Curator of Paleontology at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays. Mike and I explored the Kiowa shale of south-central Kansas. This part of the shale is in what is known as the lower Cretaceous. Back then, waaaaaaaay back then about 100 million years ago, Kansas was covered by a sea. And in that sea was a wealth of animal life. This part of the sea was shallow and, therefore, had lots of clams, oysters, snails and many other invertebrates common to shallower waters. But, occasionally, a shark or plesiosaur swam into the shallows. We were on the hunt for these vertebrates as well as some ammonites, spiral-shaped shells which looked similar to the modern day Nautilus in our current oceans. We scored on a plesiosaur femur and two vertebrae. Mike explained this is probably a rear flipper femur from a short-necked plesiosaur. The wildlife of the Kansas Outback is fascinating, both current day and of the pre-historic past! Learn more about the ancient wildlife of Kansas by googling Oceans of Kansas.